Thriddle Op Des,
I guess if you're going to fly one of Nick's former employer's products you'll get to find out that helicopters are indeed now fitted with EGPWS, TCAS and indeed with automated satellite tracking systems. Even Pan African have many of these goodies in their Bell 206/407s in Nigeria.
I completely concur with your thoughts about R/W checklists and too often they're unecessary, repetitive and have both of the crew with their heads in the cockpit when they should be looking outside. One thing which, to my mind, encourages this is that so many checks these days are done on simulators, with a heavy emphasis on IMC flight for twin engine types (when the vast majority of helicopter operations are VMC, even in twins) in a simulator environment where the risks of mid-air collision, bird strikes and the like are rarely encountered.